Thomas Alva Edison was born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. When he was 10 he had
set up a small chemical laboratory in the cellar of his home after his mother had given him
an elementary physical science book. He had found science very interesting and soon
operated a homemade telegraph set. In 1868 he got a job in Boston as an expert night
operator for Western Union Telegraph Company. He had borrowed a small sum from an a
friend and gave up his job in 1868 and became a free-lance inventor, taking out his first
patent for an electrical vote recorder.
In September 1878, after having viewed an exhibition of a series of eight glaring
500-candlepower arc lights, Edison announced he would invent a safe, mild, and
inexpensive electric light that would replace the gaslight in millions of homes. Some of
New York’s leading financial figures joined with Edison in October 1878 to form the
Edison Electric Light Company. On October 21,1879, Edison demonstrated the carbon-
filament lamp, supplied with current by his special high-voltage dynamos. Three years
later, the Pearl Street central power station in downtown New York City was completed,
initiating the electrical illumination of the cities of the world. The in 1887 Edison moved
his workshop from Menlo Park to West Orange, New Jersey, where he built the Edison
Laboratory.
This had helped many people, including factories. The lamps that Edison created
The Essay on It Is Better To Light A Candle Than Curse The Darkness
... for what he has accomplished. Thomas Edison, born during a period when there were no lights, tried over a hundred times before ... when faced with difficulties or enigmas. “Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle.” To me, this phrase means ‘when one ... meaningless life and accomplished nothing. Indeed, lighting a candle to light up the surroundings and people around us will also ...
had lit up whole cities, quickening the pace of city life. Factories were able to remain open
after dark. Although the light bulb had many good effects, it had bad ones too. A lot of the
candle factories were put out of business, which means that a lot of people were laid off.
Many different inventions were created durning the Industrial Revolution.
Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if these inventors had not created their
inventions. These inventions transformed the world into what they are today.
